


The Skin we Share

by carcinosgeneticist



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Self-Harm, Soulmates, Soulmates AU, Tattoos, Victuri, Viktor with a K
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-08 00:00:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8821489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carcinosgeneticist/pseuds/carcinosgeneticist
Summary: By the time he was six, Yuri understood what the marks on his skin meant in a primal sense. The lines in his arm from his soulmate taking naps and the brief appearance of paint stained fingers or small pictures and notes were left because of the link he had with a very special someone. His soulmate loved communicating with him, though the language barrier made it a little hard to understand. And due to lack of resources as a six year old kid, Yuri had yet to figure out what language it was showing up on his arms or much of anything else about his soulmate.





	1. Apart

By the time he was six, Yuri understood what the marks on his skin meant in a primal sense.

The lines in his arm from his soulmate taking naps and the brief appearance of paint stained fingers or small pictures and notes were left because of the link he had with a very special someone. His soulmate loved communicating with him, though the language barrier made it a little hard to understand. And due to lack of resources as a six year old kid, Yuri had yet to figure out what language it was showing up on his arms or much of anything else about his soulmate. 

They communicated through pictures, stories they made together. Every night at eight, Yuri went to his room and pulled out the large box of washable colored markers he kept by his bed. They started on their arms, his soulmate usually initiating the process by drawing a smiling face on their wrist, and Yuri would communicate with the symbols they had established with meaning. 

The sun picture implied a question, a “how was your day?” and Yuri sat back as the fine lines of his soulmates ever improving art slowly appeared on his arm. There was a well drawn boy in a sweater and scarf, shivering. Yuri giggled to himself, knowing that his soulmate lived in a cold environment. He saw the sun appear again, the question being returned, and Yuri, not quite the artist his soulmate was, but not the worst drew an ice skater. He had been at practice most the day and knew that him and his soulmate could talk about that for quite awhile since they also skated if Yuri's interpretation was right.

They talked for a good two hours until Yuri's mother came to tell him it was time for bed. He depicted a sleeping person and his soulmate responded with a string of small red hearts, their way of saying goodbye to Yuri. Yuri responded with a bright orange smiley face and got ready for bed. He went to the sink and together he and his soulmate washed their shared arms and the side of one leg where they had done a collaborated picture of a dog sleeping. 

Yuri climbed into bed to see the row of red hearts left on his wrist and he fell asleep smiling with such pleasant memories at the forefront of his mind.

 

Yuri was thirteen when he got the chance to talk with his soulmate. 

He has gotten his first laptop as a gift for his birthday and at eight that night he had gone straight to a translation website and immediately looked for anything similar to the small boxy handwriting he had seen so many times on his body. Luckily he had a few notes he had taken, scribbles of characters he had written down between conversations. 

The Russian alphabet was exactly what he had been looking for. It was almost eerie seeing those letters on a screen as opposed to a note on a hand or a failed conversation. 

He typed into the little bar “Hello?” and it spit back out in a series of letters he tried his best to copy onto his arm. 

Almost too quickly, the response came from his soulmate in the familiar black ink on his skin. He translated the letters and came back with an enthusiastic “Yes! Hello!”

“You speak Russian?”

“Yes, I am Russian. My name is Viktor!”

Yuri felt his heart jump in his chest at the name, the perfection of it coming to him with such clarity. For the first time he was talking to his soulmate, to Viktor.

“My name is Yuri. I am Japanese.”

“It's so nice to finally talk to you. I've wanted to know you for so long. Do you speak Russian now?”

“No, I'm using a translator. Sorry it took me so long to get one.”

“It's okay. I should have tried to as well.”

Yuri had so many questions, so many things he wanted to ask Viktor, he was stunned into silence with the possibility of it all. He could not think where to start, how to talk to this Viktor, the shared owner of his body. He could only sit in amazement, staring at the row of rushed Russian letters on his-no- their skin. He found his mind blank, but luckily his soulmate knew exactly what to say. 

“This must be a lot. Lets take our time. Hi Yuri. Tell me a bit about yourself?”

And the floodgates opened. 

 

“Do you think we could ever get a tattoo?”

“Yeah Yuri. What are you thinking?”

“I don't know, dragon, poodle, something. I just want a constant image of us.” 

“Yeah, we could do something like that.”

“You're eighteen. You could get us one.”

“I could. What do you want Yuri?”

Yuri was giddy with anticipation. This had to be the best part of having such a cool soulmate like Viktor. Viktor really was the other half of him, they got along so well. Yuri couldn't imagine his life without the Russian man in it. Yuri smiled and wrote back slowly. He wasn't quite confident in his Russian yet, but Viktor encouraged him to keep trying. It was a beautiful language and Yuri was happy to have the inspiration to learn it. 

“Maybe a snowflake or something?”

Viktor began drawing off to the side and Yuri smiled. The small snowflake sketch was simple but beautiful and Yuri knew he wanted it to commemorate him and Viktor.

“Like that?”

“Yes. That's perfect.”

A week later as Yuri got into the shower the image of a beautiful intricate snowflake, half done and bleeding slightly appeared on his hip. He smiled and ran his fingers over it, eager to see the rest of what Viktor was getting done. 

 

Yuri sat in the bathroom, razor blade held to his thigh. He didn't think it would help, but he needed to try something. Sixteen and alone, he wanted to take his self loathing out on himself, and so he dragged the sharp end across his slim thigh, breaking the skin and creating a dark streak of ruby red blood. 

He hissed at the pain, and sat back against the wall, letting the feeling take over as the cool air stung his body. It was new, it was expression in a way he had not felt before. 

He went again, a second line parallel to the first dragging along his skin and bringing tears to his eyes. He could think of nothing but the relief it somehow gave him. 

His hand dipped down once more to cut a line into his burning skin, but where he went to mark was bright red letters in his own language.

“STOP.”

Yuri dropped the blade and scrambled for a wash cloth. He wet it and cleaned his wounds before looking for anything in the tiny bathroom to return a message. Pencil eyeliner. That would do.

He had no regards for the language, the back of his mind figuring Viktor could figure out what he was saying if he could write in Japanese in the first place. 

“I'm so sorry Viktor.”

“Please don't hurt yourself my darling Yuri.”

Yuri's eyes stung with tears of a different kind as the words appeared away from his tattered leg and on his wrist. Before he could respond, Viktor continued.

“You are so beautiful, you are better than this. I need you to stop. I need you to promise me you wont hurt yourself again.”

Yuri wrote back in eyeliner, “I wont. I'm sorry. Does it hurt?”

“Not physically. But in other ways, yes.”

The bathroom didn't feel empty. Yuri could feel Viktor, not his disappointment, but his concern. He felt the realness of his soulmate, the connection they shared. And Yuri knew no matter what, he would not hurt Viktor again. 

“I'm sorry Viktor. I didn't mean to hurt you.”

“I love you so much Yuri. Please don't leave me alone.”

Yuri looked at those words and could feel the blood rush to his cheeks and hear it in his ears. Viktor was his soulmate, but plenty of soulmates went their entire lives as friends, and though Yuri knew he wanted more, he believed Viktor was happy with what they had established already. 

“I love you too.” He wrote back, and waited anxiously for the response.

“Where are you Yuri? Are you okay?”

“I'm on the bathroom floor in my house. I'm alone.”

“Oh Yuri...can you clean yourself up darling? Bandage up your leg please.”

“Okay. Please don't leave Victor.”

“I'm right here sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere.”

 

“Do you think we'll ever meet Viktor?”

“I know we will. I would travel the whole world to meet you Yuri. I'd do anything to be with you.”

“I'd love that Viktor. To finally see you in person.”

“I promise we will be together Yuri. It's destiny.”

Viktor was four years older than Yuri, he was currently twenty two. Since Yuri's birthday a couple months prior, the way they talked had changed drastically. Yuri had seen plenty of pictures of his soulmate and vice versa, they were both old enough to get a hold of a computer or phone and call or send photos, but they still communicated primarily through skin. It was more intimate, it was theirs. And since Yuri had turned eighteen, Viktor had been much more open about how he felt.

“I want to be with you. Right now. Want to take you places and I want to skate with you.”

“Maybe you could come to Japan? And we could meet in person.”

“Next month?”

Yuri looked at his leg where he had casually been writing with astonishment. The possibility of Viktor coming to see him all the way from Russia had him smiling like a lovesick child. 

“That would be beautiful.”

“So I will. Next month.”

Yuri tried to act calm and collected as he responded “Yeah okay, next month. Sounds great.”

 

“Isn't it cool that I can talk to you in an airplane?”

“We talk everyday thousands of miles away. How is this cooler than that?”

“I'm in an airplane?”

“Yeah, I guess you're right.”

“Can we get food when I land? The in flight meal was horrible.”

“Yeah, sure. I'm already waiting in the arrivals area. They have food places here if that's okay.”

“Sounds perfect. Damn, I cant wait to land. You exited?”

“Nervous is more the word for it.”

“Nervous? Why?”

“What if I'm not everything you expect?”

“You'll be all that and more. You're my soulmate Yuri.”

“Why aren't you nervous?”

“Because I was made to be yours. Of course you'll love me!”

Yuri rolled his eyes and smiled.

“Planes landing now. I'll see you on the other side.”

“Right.”

Yuri stood from his seat and walked to get a water from the vending machine. He felt the pressure now that he was minutes away from seeing his soulmate. He took a few shaky breaths. He was good enough for Viktor. They were soulmates. There was no turning back now.


	2. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viktor and Yuri finally meet

Yuri drank down at least half of the contents of his water bottle, his nerves getting the best of him. He shook with the intensity of it all, and it took all of his strength to keep himself from running the other way, in the exact opposite direction of the only true happiness he had ever known. And if it wasn't for the thought of Viktor standing alone and heart broken at the arrivals terminal because lame little Yuri hadn't shown up, he was sure he would be hiding in the bathroom of the airport.

 

Yuri watched the people flooding out into the terminal, nobody that matched the pictures he had seen, not yet. Men and women went past without knowing what kind of inner turmoil he was going through.

With every passing face, he wondered if maybe there was a possibility that Viktor wasn't coming. That he would be able to put off the meeting of someone a perfect as his Viktor. His insecurities rocked him back and forth as he stood, waiting anxiously for Viktor.

The minutes ticked by and finally silver hair was spotted. Yuri froze, his feet cemented to the spot he was in, transfixed by the beauty of his soulmate, real and oh so magnificent. Viktor spotted him and the man took speedy steps towards him, his luggage rolling along loud and rushed behind him. 

“Yuri!” Came his voice, and his smile illuminated the entire room.

And somehow, seeing him, seeing the man who had picked him up off the floor, who had kept him strong when the world was out to get him, it pushed him forward. He began to walk towards Viktor, and then his walk became a run, and his run became a full on sprint until they met somewhere in the middle propelling into each other at top speed.

Viktor held tightly to him, and he spoke softly into the crown of his hair “You're real. You're really real.” And Yuri got a glimpse into the world that Viktor was in, into the scary reality that Viktor had traveled for hours in a plane to come meet him after all this time.

And with as much emotion as he could muster, Yuri mumbled words into Viktor's chest as he sobbed, big heavy tears “I love you so much.”

Viktor pulled him in impossibly tighter, and there they stood in the middle of the airport, Viktor's luggage sprawled on the floor and in a tight embrace. “I love you too.”

 

They sat down at a restaurant not ten minutes from the airport, a food chain that Viktor was familiar with and they sat in a booth all the way in the back. 

“Is it weird to say I've missed you?” Viktor says, his blue eyes staring adoringly across the table at Yuri. “Because I have. I feel like I've been away from you, on a long trip, but I've just come home again.”

Yuri smiles at this and brings both of his hands up to cover his face and the blush that has grown there. Viktor reaches across the table and grabs both of his hands and pulls them away from his face, “Please don't. I want to look at you Yuri.” Yuri doesn't miss how Viktor keeps one hand in his, so their fingers stay knitted together in the middle of the table, but he doesn't mind either.

They order food, Yuri a sandwich and Viktor biscuits and gravy, and they eat, but more than that they talk. Every word that could not be properly conveyed through just writing, they say.

“I don't ever want to go back to Russia. I'd like to stay here, with you.” Viktor says in a suddenly serious tone. Yuri looks up at him, a bite of food still in his mouth, and he is thankful that it it there because it gives him time to think of what to say in return.

“You would do that for me?” He says, his brown eyes illustrating shock behind his framed glasses, “Even though you just barely know the language and you'd be leaving everything behind?”

Viktor gives him a smile that seems too bright for someplace as boring as a restaurant in an airport. “I love Russia, but being there, I was never complete. The twenty minutes I've spent on the ground here in Hatsu have been the best of my life Yuri.” Yuri is amazed how forward Viktor is and how easily it comes to him, “Japan, Russia, or somewhere in between, I would like to spend the rest of my life with you, Yuri.”

This brings a blush to Yuri's pale cheeks, but he can't deny that he feels the same way. “I would like that very much Viktor. For you to be with me always.” He cannot bring himself to look up, but Viktor is smiling all the same. He lets Yuri eat the rest of his meal silently because he knows the small Japanese man is shy and he's probably embarrassed him enough for the time being. 

Viktor pays for their meal despite Yuri insisting that Viktor is his guest and they leave the restaurant. On the way out the door, Viktor watches Yuri's hand, stiff at his side and he only chuckles softly as he grabs hold of it and Yuri goes rigid for a few seconds before shooting at look at Viktor. He pretends not to notice, and just pulls Yuri in a little closer. 

 

The little road they walk on has a tattoo parlor and Viktor jokingly pulls him inside. They walk up to the wall where all the designs are displayed and look over the pictures of dogs and cats and plants, the possibilities endless. 

“I'm not very good with pain, I could never get a tattoo.” Yuri says in observation.

“We also do henna, if you just want to try something out for cheaper.” Says a woman with purple hair standing behind the counter. She seems nice enough and Viktor smiles at Yuri before pointing to the wall.

“I think you should get this Yuri.” It is a flower of some sort, and Yuri is about to protest before the lady starts to talk again.

“It doesn't hurt at all. And it only lasts a few weeks.” Yuri looks at her and then back at Viktor and sighs with a smile. He has nothing to lose anyway and Viktor looks all too exited for him to say no.

“Okay, just because you got a tattoo for me.” He says, and the lady leads him to the back where Viktor sits next to him and the lady goes to work on his wrist. 

The two if them watch as it appears on Viktor's wrist, marveling at how precise the design is, how identical it is on their skin. Yuri reaches out for Viktor's hand, overwhelmed by the connotation behind this exchange. And they meet eyes, and there is no doubt in Yuri's mind that Viktor is perfect for him. Because it has always been Viktor.

 

“Do you want to walk around town some more or get some sleep?” Yuri asks Viktor as they head down the street that will take them to the station. “Because we can go to my home of you'd like, but then you'd have to meet my family..”

Viktor picks up on Yuri's unwillingness to introduce him quite yet and responds accordingly, “Let's walk around awhile. The city is beautiful and I'd like to be seen holding your hand.”

Yuri looks away and exhales out into the cool evening air, “You are so forward Vicchan. More than I expected.” He doesn't look mad, but Viktor is a little worried anyway.

He pulls them to a stop as they walk down the road lined with little shops and local businesses and Viktor faces Yuri before letting his hand go and standing up straight. “Have I misread the situation? Do you not want to continue this way?” His face is concerned, he is concerned. Yuri is a breath of fresh air in a world on fire and Viktor won't do anything to jeopardize this connection. 

Yuri looks at him, a little shocked, but quickly the expression fades into something softer. He carefully, bashfully reaches out for Viktor's wrist, missing the warmth his hand offered and steps in a little closer. He turns it over to see the design on his skin, the one Yuri shares and he kisses their mark softly. He holds Viktor's wrist against his chest, “I'm sorry, this is just all new to me. I want you, but let's take this slow Vitya.”

And despite those words, Viktor surges forward and wraps Yuri into his arms, and the relief is instantaneous. “As slow as you want Yuri. We'll go at your pace.” 

And Yuri hugs him back with no hesitation. He buries his face in Viktor's coat and the world fades around him in place of Viktor's affection. 

“Let's go home Yuri. I'm sure your family is waiting.” Viktor says, slowly unraveling him arms from around his partner. 

“I hope not.” Yuri laughs softly, taking Viktor's hand with a new found confidence and walking again at his side. “And just in case they are, I'm sorry in advance.”

Viktor laughs, but there is a nervous tinge behind his exclamation, the thought of meeting his soulmates friends and family along with the scrutinizing questions worrying the cool collected Russian man.

Yuri looks at Viktor and their entwined fingers and remembers that Viktor will only be here for a week. And this lovely man says he'd like to stay, but of course he will go home before, organize his affairs, and then come back. And while this makes perfect sense to Yuri, he isn't sure he want to be without his soulmate another hour after finally seeing his face. Six days and counting, Yuri holds a little tighter to Viktor's hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I imagine Yuri and Viktor would be talking in Russian because Yuri has been trying to learn it, although maybe they go back and forth between their respective languages to fit their needs and to overcome the language barrier. 
> 
> Also, i'm considering writing some kind of love making scene, but i'm bad at writing well paced smut, so maybe leave a comment if you're interested in helping me out?

**Author's Note:**

> Should I continue this?
> 
>  
> 
> Update!!  
> The overwhelming support is so inspiring!! There should be a new chapter up sometime tomorrow. (Also, it would mean the world to my little writer heart if you would check out my Otabek/Yurio fic?? ♡)


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